The Stanford Prison Experiment

In this tense, psychological thriller based on the notorious true story, Billy Crudup stars as Stanford University professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who, in 1971, cast 24 student volunteers as prisoners and guards in a simulated jail to examine the source of abusive behaviour in the prison system.
The results astonished the world, as participants went from middle-class undergrads to drunk-with-power sadists and submissive victims in just a few days.

Unsettling fact-based drama about a bunch of 24 Californian university students who volunteered to take part in a study into prison life

This unsettling fact-based drama reproduces the notorious, still controversial psychology experiment from 1971 in which a bunch of 24 Californian university students volunteered to take part in a study into prison life. A flip of a coin decided who would be mock guards and who prisoners, but the role-playing soon got alarmingly out of hand.

Ezra Miller and Michael Angarano stand out among the students, while Billy Crudup plays the tunnel-visioned academic in charge, Philip Zimbardo. The film is tough going in places but offers a chilling study into the psychology of authority and the abuse of power.